Wednesday, 1 June 2016

Charles O'Brien (1882-1968): Orchestral Works Volume 2

MusicWeb International reviewer Jonathan
Woolf stole my thunder on this composer. Let me explain. Until receiving this
present disc, Charles O’Brien was little more than a name to me. I had never
knowingly heard any music composed by him.
As part of my review of an unknown/unfamiliar composer I always listen
to the CD once-through without reading the liner notes or doing a web search. It is part of my ‘Innocent Ear’ approach. Maybe
not a good idea, but it is my way. After the final track had died away, I
thought:’ O’Brien’s music sounds as if someone had discovered a pile of lost scores
by the Greenock-born composer Hamish MacCunn’ famous for Overture: The Land of
the Mountain and the Flood. I then read Woolf’s review
– ‘There’s the famous School of
Stanford – but what of the School of the short-lived Hamish MacCunn?’ That’s
the very thought that occurred to me as I listened to the orchestral music of
Charles O’Brien…’ So I cannot claim this
comparison as my own, nevertheless, it is an admirable rule of thumb for
judging the quality of music in this CD. It is worth recalling that O’Brien was
a Scottish composer, in spite of being born in Eastbourne. And he did take
lessons from the ‘senior man’ in Edinburgh. At bottom line this is music from a
composer who as influenced by the romantic school of music but who was tinged
with a number of indigenous felicities.

Volume 1 of this collection included the massive Walter Scott-inspired
overture Ellangowan, op.12 (1909) derived
from Guy Mannering and the Symphony
in F minor, op.23 (1922). The present CD includes some shorter, but equally
interesting, pieces of music. I should point out that I have now listened to
Volume 1.

I began my review with the early Mazurka and Berceuse (1898).
They were written when the sixteen year old composers was at George Watson’s
School in Edinburgh. Mann points out that they were originally piano pieces
that were orchestrated by person or persons unknown. The orchestral score is
initialled C.C. so it is possible
that it was fellow school mate Cecil Coles (1888-1918) who had obliged O’Brien.
The Mazurka is a pleasant little piece that could have been composed by Eduard
or Josef Strauss. The Berceuse’s scoring had to be reworked by Mann as ‘C.C.s’
original was ‘so problematic.’ The end result is a charming piece of light
music.

I moved on to the Scottish
Scenes, op.17. And yes, MacCunn had written a two piano pieces entitled Scottish Scenes: ‘In the Glen’ and ‘In
the Ingleneuk’ in 1914. Charles O’Brien’s evocation of the Caledonian landscape
was produced around the same time, between 1914 and 1915. Once again, they were
originally conceived for piano, and were subsequently orchestrated by the
composer as late as 1929 for a BBC broadcast.
I love Mann’s comment on the work’s integrity: “O’Brien’s image of
Scotland didn’t come from the top of a shortbread tin. His is a country of
ruggedly beautiful, sometimes inhospitable landscapes…”

The three scenes present musical pictures of Scotland. ‘Moorland’
is dark and brooding, yet with an unexpected warmth for such a dramatic
landscape. The ‘Voice of the Glen’ is like a Celtic mother calling to her
children from afar. He uses a characteristic pentatonic melody (black notes
only) in the string section. However,
the mood does change: he utilises a ‘shrieking piccolo and swirling harp’ to create
something evocative of strife between clans or the gross indignity of the
Highland Clearances. The mood of the opening is restored and brings the
movement to a close. ‘Harvest Home’ is a Scottish country dance. All the stops
are pulled out for this vigorous and vivacious finale.

Charles O’Brien has succeeded in giving a musical portrait of
Scotland that does not depend on clichés from the music hall or cinema screen. Admittedly,
there are a number of Scotch snaps and melodies that nod to Scottish folksong. Yet,
he has managed to absorb the landscape into his heart and soul.

The next piece I explored was the powerful concert overture The Minstrel’s Curse. It was first performed at the Empire Palace
Theatre in Edinburgh on 3 December 1905. It is a programmatic piece of music
based on a poetic ballad by the German author Ludwig Uhland (1787-1862). The
story relates how two wandering minstrels, one old and the other young, arrived
at a grim castle surrounded by ‘blooming flowers and ornate fountains.’ The
tenant of the castle is a king who is despised as a tyrant. The minstrels enter
the grand hall and play for the king and his queen. The monarch’s jealousy is
aroused when his wife presents the young minstrel with a rose for performing so
beautifully. He strikes the young man dead. The elder singer curses the tyrant
and his castle, resulting in eternal desolation. There is no memory of the
sovereign, his demesne or his deeds. ‘That is the minstrel’s curse.’

O’Brien has been almost literal in his following of the
story, and the liner notes give a verse by verse analysis of the music’s
progress. The musical language used to portray this story is that of Schumann,
Tchaikovsky and Liszt.

I loved this ‘concert overture.’ I can understand Paul Mann’s
contention that it may overstay its welcome, nevertheless the music is always
interesting, exciting, dramatic and disturbing.
The listener can always dump the programme from their mind if it helps
them to enjoy this symphonic-sized movement.
Just imagine the idea of the work depicting the power of beauty and
wisdom triumphing over evil.

The last work I listened to was the first in the track
listing – To Spring: Concert Overture, op.4. The work was premiered at the Edinburgh
Music Hall on 24 March 1906, and was later taken up by Dan Godfrey at
Bournemouth. The key of the work, B flat
major, is the same as Robert Schumann’s magical evocation of the season in his
Spring Symphony. Certainly, it is easier to hear echoes of the River Rhine in
this overture than intimations of the Firth of Forth. Although let us not forget that Schumann
claimed to have been inspired by ‘springs of love’ rather than snowdrops and
daffodils. Whatever the inspiration for O’Brien’s work, it is a delightful, if
a little old-fashioned, overture. It deserves its place in the repertoire.

Influences by Schumann, Mendelssohn, Liszt and Tchaikovsky in
this music there may well be. I have noted above the ghost of Hamish MacCunn
visibly hovering over these scores. Although there are definite echoes of these
composers, it is Charles O’Brien’s individual voice that comes through in these
works.

The booklet notes by Paul Mann are fascinating. It is an
essay-length discussion of these works that requires to be read. It includes
notes about the conductor and the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra. The Latvian orchestra
plays with enthusiasm and seem to have a definite flair for evoking the mists
and sceneries of Scotland. I cannot help feeling that it is a sad reflection on
attitudes to British music that Charles O’Brien’s rediscovery has had to go the
beautiful country of Latvia: why was it not possible for one of the Scottish
orchestras to ‘take him up.’

This is an excellent CD dedicated
to an undiscovered Scottish composer. I understand that there are a few more
orchestral works that ought to be recorded.
I look forward to Volume 3.

About Me

I am well over fifty years old: the end of the run of baby boomers! I was born in Glasgow, moving south to York in the late ‘seventies. I now work in London.
My main interest is British Music from the nineteenth century onwards.
I love the ‘arch-typical’ English countryside – and have always wanted to ‘Go West, Boy’.
A. E. Housman and the ‘Georgian’ poets are a huge influence on my aesthetic. I have spent much of my life looking for the ‘Land of Lost Content’ and only occasionally glimpsed it…somewhere in…???
My recently published work includes essays on Ivor Gurney’s song ‘On Wenlock Edge’ for the Gurney Society Journal, The Music of Marion Scott and a study of Janet Hamilton’s songs for the British Music Society Journal, and the composer Muriel Herbert for the Housman Society.
I have contributed to the journals of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, the Finzi Society, and the Bliss Society, the Berkeley Society, the BMS Newsletter and regular CD reviews for MusicWeb International.